As a Canadian who spent his late elementary and junior high school days in the U.S. (and I enjoyed it!), I used to get into all kinds of trouble not saying the Pledge. I used to sit at my desk, which really irked people. Even then I thought it was propagandistic -- but then American schools are saturated in mindless American propaganda. Getting beaten up was typical childhood fascism, known the world over, the different get beaten up.

Now I am a Buddhist, I would be in even bigger trouble. The worst thing about the U.S. is stupid patriotism like the Pledge of Allegiance; the best thing is that they fight about things like the Pledge of Allegiance like cats and dogs. What is the funniest part of it of course is that the Constitution and the Founding Fathers are the American Bible and Patriarch and Ten Commandments rolled into one, they are worshipped like Gospel Truth, and yet there is this irritating Enlightenment stuff about religious freedom in it. It really does make one laugh at the historical ironies.

I personally wish that they would stop pledging allegiance to the market, and to the Corporations for which they seem to stand almost anything, but maybe Worldcom and Enron will get them started. I doubt it.

There was an amusing skit a friend of mine sent me from a progressive school in the U.S., which got the student into all kinds of trouble. It began: "This moment of non-denominational silence is brought to you by Pepsi-Cola."

yours, Peter T.